Now that Spring is here and the air is filled with the songs of birds, I'm inspired to introduce the following topic:
What composers have incorporated bird songs (actual or imitated) into their compositions? Those that immediately come to mind:
Oliver Messiaen, who was an ornothologist, and incorporated specific bird songs into many of his works culminating in his Catalogue D'Oseaux and Oiseaux Exotiques.
Rautavaara has his 'Cantus Arcticus' a Concerto for Birds and Orchestra.
Resphighi's Fountains of Rome includes imitations of bird songs and more explicitly in his suite 'The Birds'
Saint-Saens has several birds in the 'Carnival of the Animals'
Vaughan Williams in the Lark Ascending (several other works evoke birds as I recall).
Swans are well represented in the aforementioned Carnival, Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake (if somewhat obliquely).
The bird and the duck in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.
Contemporary Japanese composer Tokashi Yoshimatsu (who I heartily recommend to those unfamiliar with him) has many bird song inspired works as well as his better known older contemporary Toru Takemitsu.
Biber incorporates bird songs in several of his violin sonatas, the most explicit is the sonata 'Cock, Hen & Quail'
Vivaldi's flute concerto 'The Goldfinch' explicitly imitates a bird song and there are definite bird song parts of 'Spring'.
Handel has his organ concerto 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'
Couperin has several harpsichord works based on bird songs, notably 'Le Rossignol-en-amour et Double'.
Janacek has the somewhat obscure chamber work 'March of the Bluebirds' (Pochod Modrácku)
And jazz musician Paul Winter frequently includes recordings of live bird songs in his music (and uses the bird songs and other natural sounds as inspiration for improvisations).
But most of the above examples are pretty well sung composers (excepting possibly Biber and Yoshimatsu). So where are the unsung compositions using bird songs. The only one that immediately comes to my mind is Holbrooke's 'The Birds of Rhiannon' (James MacMillan has also composed a piece based on this Welsh legend, but I don't recall any specific attempts to imitate birds in it), and more obscurely Chris Sainsbury's 'Symphony of the Birds' (excerpts here:
http://www.sainsburymusic.com/sounds-and-scores).
The two other examples that comes to example just offhand (of course there are many others I'm positive) is the first movement of Roger Sessions' 3rd symphony :)
and - the slow movement of Beethoven's 6th symphony!
Eric
I used to play the Henselt - Si Oiseau J'etais, but i cannot remember if it was particularly "birdy".
Thal
Walter Braunfels lovely opera "Die Vögel" (composed approx. 1920) should be mentioned here.
Four keyboard works: Birds are portrayed delightfully in Rameau's Le rappel des oiseaux. Poetically in Ravel's Oiseaux tristes. Most imaginatively in Beach's Two Hermit Thrush Pieces.
Vivaldi also does so in Spring, don't forget.
Sibelius's Swanwhite has a movement called "Lo, the Robin Sings" which kinda has a bird thing going for it.
Not being familiar with European birds and their songs (other than the ones quoted in the works above) I can't be certain, but the Vogel als Prophet section from Schumann's Waldszenen, Op. 82, certainly flits around like a bird.
Quote from: John Hudock on Wednesday 19 May 2010, 14:49Biber incorporates bird songs in several of his violin sonatas, the most explicit is the sonata 'Cock, Hen & Quail'
What about Le Coq d'Or?
(Haydn's Chicken Symphony probably doesn't count.)
Quote from: Hovite on Thursday 20 May 2010, 08:06
(Haydn's Chicken Symphony probably doesn't count.)
Indeed it does not.
You must never count your chickens.
Thal
There is also the Amsel Septett (Blackbird Septet) composed by Heinz Tiessen in 1915, his op 20.
I have read that Beethoven used the call of the European blackbird in the rondo of his violin concerto (the five note motif in the first theme).
A very good piece involving birds is Gregorz Fitelberg's 'Song of the Falcon' (1905), unfortunately (AFAIK) not represented in the catalogue but a vivid evocation of birdflight.
How about Haydn's String Quartet Op 64 No 5, nicknamed "The Lark" or, if that's not unsung enough, the weird bird noises in the opening movement of Spohr's 4th Symphony, involving amongst other wind instruments, a tierce flute, tuned a major third above the standard flute.
Quote from: Ilja on Thursday 20 May 2010, 10:39
A very good piece involving birds is Gregorz Fitelberg's 'Song of the Falcon' (1905), unfortunately (AFAIK) not represented in the catalogue but a vivid evocation of birdflight.
Good news! The Song of the Falcon by Gregorz Fitelberg is indeed represented in the CD catalogue with a recent issue of the label EDA (Reference: EDA 27). I wish that more music of this composer were available.
By the way, John, if I remember correctly the bird sounds appear in Respighi's "Pines of Rome", not in the "Fountains" (after all, you have higher chances to find birds in the forest than in the fountains!).
I would like to mention also the (to me) extraordinarily beautiful song "Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis", the second one from Ravel's Trois Chansons for choir.
QuoteBy the way, John, if I remember correctly the bird sounds appear in Respighi's "Pines of Rome", not in the "Fountains" (after all, you have higher chances to find birds in the forest than in the fountains!).
Gentile,
You're quite right. I recall and would have to re-listen to confirm that there are some bird like noises in the Fountains to represent the birds that collect around the fountains, the piece with the recording of actual birds is the Pines. Respighi's score actual calls for a specific recording of bird songs to be played.
Thanks all for participating in the little game. There are a few interesting recordings I will have to look for. I am constantly amazed by this groups knowledge of obscure and arcane music.
Just listening to the orchestral version of Ravel's Ma Merel'Oye, and there's some clear bird sounds in the Petit Poucet movement.
Likewise, no mistaking the bird calls with which Enescu's masterful 'Impressions d'enfance' is replete.
Olivier Mesiaen had a liking for birds:
Reveil des oiseaux for (Piano & orchestra), and Couleurs de la cite celeste (for Large Orchestra with imitations of two birds from N.Z. & one from Brazil), Oiseaux exotiques (for Piano, 2 wind instruments,Xylophone,Celesta &
Percusion), Catalogue d'oiseaux (for Organ), plus other shorter works.
Marcus.
There is also Liszt's First Legend - St. François d'Assise - La Prédication aux oiseaux (S175 no.1) which contains a lot of birdsong imitation. The orchestral version works especially well.
A new addition to the steadily growing list of birds in music:
Alphons Diepenbrock: The Birds Overture (composed 1917). A lot of imitated bird calls in this work, especially the middle section with flute-solo.
Morten
Another suggestion - Eimar Englund symphony no 2 "The Blackbird" - very enjoyable!
Cheers
Dennis
And what about Sergei Bortkiewicz, with his Étude d'oiseaux, op. 4 no. 2 from Impressions, six character pieces for piano solo. A very sparkling, short piece lasting only one and a half minutes, with several bird imitations of which I only can identify the call of a cuckoo.
____
Another addition is Vöglein (Little Bird) by Grieg (Lyric Pieces, Band 3, op. 43 no. 4).
Henry Hadley's Symphony No.5 "Connecticut" uses birdcalls in its second movement. The three movement work seeks to describe the state of Connecticut at various periods of its history, and the second movement is marked Pastorale, "1765". (The other movements are "1635", which describes the first settlers, their hardships and conflicts with Native Americans, and "1935", which describes the hustle and bustle of the state in its modern age at the time of composition. The composer names the birds as they are used, and I must say that after looking up and hearing the actual birdsongs themselves, Hadley did a phenomenal job of notating and recreating them.
Quote from: minacciosa on Tuesday 13 March 2012, 02:38
Henry Hadley's Symphony No.5 "Connecticut" uses birdcalls in its second movement. ......
Wow! It sounds like you have a recording of Hadley's 5th! If so, is it possible to upload it - please? I only know of the Naxos disc of his 4th....
He is definitely an unsung composers whose works I would love to hear! :) :)
Alexander Alexandrovich Alabiev (1787-1851) - "Nightingale" ("Solovey" in Russian) is for coloratura soprano, and is an extremely popular piece in Russia, though maybe an unsung elsewhere. Russian sopranos belt it out to prove their abilities! This is a good example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh5gohpKNVA&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh5gohpKNVA&feature=related) - sung by Georgian soprano Lamara Chkonia. Many others on youtube as well.
Didn't Leopold Mozart use birdsong in his Toy Symphony?
And there's a great piece by an Estonian composer, Veljo Tormis (b.1930) called Swan Flight.
The first set of Gianfrancesco Malipiero "Impressioni dal Vero" (recent Naxos recording) contains three pieces titled:
The blackcap, the woodpecker, the scops owl: for me truly marvellous and very personal music.
Probably the most famous birdcalls in the repertory: 2nd movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, where you have that brief woodwind cadenza wherein you hear (IIRC) a yellowhammer(?) a nightingale and, of course, a cukoo.
The opening scene (after the Prologue) of "Paul Bunyan" has definite birdsong effects
If you want to pick up birds it's hard to find where not to go: Rott's symphony has its ducks and his prodigy Mahler his birdsong, cuckoos and calls aplenty (such as M1:1 and M7). Wagner's Siegfried has his birdsong and Lohengrin his swan as Tchaikovsky and Sibelius do too. Oskar Sala has his Hitcockian bird noises, Sullivan his tom-tit, Delius his lark, Shchedrin his seagull, Kodoly his peacock, and Stravinsky even a firebird. ... There's absolutely no end to it.
Don't hate me please: RVW - The Lark Ascending. ::)
Quote from: semloh on Tuesday 13 March 2012, 04:32
Quote from: minacciosa on Tuesday 13 March 2012, 02:38
Henry Hadley's Symphony No.5 "Connecticut" uses birdcalls in its second movement. ......
Wow! It sounds like you have a recording of Hadley's 5th! If so, is it possible to upload it - please? I only know of the Naxos disc of his 4th....
He is definitely an unsung composers whose works I would love to hear! :) :)
Unfortunately I don't have a recording; I have a score. Should a performance occur, I will certainly share.
Birtwistle: Night's black bird ( I have heard it twice in actual concerts in the span of one year; magisterial avant-garde- and the piece is short).
Villa Lobos : Uirapurù (or "The Enchanted Bird")
Ravel: Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis
An old thread, but a new spring. Recently I came across a CD called The animal in the 20th century piano music, played by the Dutch pianist Marius van Paassen (1983).
The birds are:
Ravel: Oiseaux Tristes (= sad birds), from Miroirs
Granados: Quejas ó la Maya y el Ruisenor (= the complaint or the maiden and the nightingale), from Goyescas. Towards the end of the piece in a sad silence, a nightingale sings.
Van den Sigtenhorst Meyer: from Eight Préludes: No. 5 Marabou and No. 6 Humming-bird
Messiaen: Le Traquet stapazin (= some kind of a Bunting, living in the Pyrenees near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea), from Le Catalogue des Oiseaux.
MacDowell wrote a miniature etude called "To a Hummingbird."
Hermann Suter's 3rd string quartet op.20 in G (1918) has the title "Amselrufe" (blackbird songs)
unfortunately I've never heard it.
Finnissy's 3rd Quartet-44 mins long-sustantial portions of taped birdsong.
My favourite 'official' birdsong orchestral moment is the actual opening of Englund 2- cited earlier
You will hear a lot of birdsong in Maxwell Davies- many places
I swear if you listen often enough to Webern's op21 symphony, first movement, it is there in the clarinet
From Wikipedia's entry on Martin Denny, he of the exotic lounge music:
QuoteThe original combo consisted of Augie Colon on percussion and birdcalls,
Has anyone mentioned Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition?
Quote from: reiger on Wednesday 16 May 2012, 14:07
Has anyone mentioned Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition?
Or the Hut on Hen's Legs for that matter....!
In my cleaning and reorganizing of my CD's I found a recording of the 'blackbird.' Not too impressed
Ah, but I am deeply impressed with the Blackbird Pub in Earl's Court. My favorite London hangout...
I'm happy for you friend. I'll give it another listen.
Tom